Cadence

Anything done "when there is time" happens rarely, because it competes with urgent work and loses. A fixed cadence removes the decision. The review runs because the slot exists. It also makes results comparable. Looking at the same three numbers every Monday shows a trend that an occasional look never would.

• Match the interval to how fast the thing can drift. Cash and pipeline suit a weekly look, while strategy suits a quarterly one.
• Fix the day and the time, and protect the slot so it survives a busy week.
• Write down what happens each time, so the rhythm carries real content.
• Give one person ownership. A cadence nobody owns quietly stops.
• Review the cadence itself once or twice a year. If a meeting no longer changes any decision, shorten it or drop it.

A cadence has three parts: an interval, an owner and a content. The interval says how often. The owner says who makes sure it happens. The content says what is done each time. Without all three it is just a recurring calendar entry.

The word is used in two main ways. In operations, an operating cadence is the set of regular meetings and reviews that keep a business on course. In sales, a cadence is the planned sequence of touches to one prospect, for example an email on day one, a call on day three and a message on day six.

• A cadence too frequent to matter, so people stop preparing for it.
• Meetings with no agenda and no owner.
• Keeping a rhythm long after it stopped being useful.